Open Journal Systems

Imprisonment to Protect Women Against “Crimes of Honor”

Rana Husseini

Abstract

Some Jordanian women commit a crime, serve their sentence and then walk free. Others — some of them guilty only in the eyes of their family and the society — end up in prison and never leave. This is the story of one of these women, Kifah, who is destined to probably spend the rest of her life in prison, because government authorities cannot release her out of fear she might be killed by her family.